Smooth Sailing

Driving to work had been a breeze these three days.

There was no car in front of me except this morning when I had to drive to the city to bank in to pay for my SCB Visa credit card. I left home at 6.40a.m., drove to the city and by 7.05a.m. I arrived at work. It was wonderful to see the sun rising from the East as I used the Coastal Highway.

I am enjoying the traffic-less driving while it lasts. I am sure traffic will be back to normal by next Monday.

The last two days had been once again pure bliss at work. Some people are back to work since yesterday but there was not much distraction.

I digress - From my observation it seemed like there are more sounds of fireworks and fire-crackers this year. I had trouble falling asleep on the eve of CNY due to the sounds of these things.

Since I do not have Astro at home, right at this moment I am listening through the internet via AO Radio the semi-final match between world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and world No. 14 Fernando Verdaso of the Australian Tennis Open 2009. They are on to the fifth and final set with both players tie at two sets all. How close can the match be after 4 hours and 41 minutes?

Dinner at Home

Dinner at Home

Sweet and Sour Prawns

Roast Goose

Sauce for Roast Goose

Vegetarian Dish

Staying Motivated

Staying motivated and doing some work while almost the rest of the world outside is having holidays is no easy feat. But then I choose to be in this situation and therefore I have to find a way to stay motivated.

Two thirds of us are back to work while one third is still on leave.

At the beginning of my work day, I set target for myself to reach by the end of the day. I once again welcome pure bliss – only two phone calls – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both are from officers from government departments.

So without much distraction, I have to accomplish what I have set out to do. I did achieve my target and have ten minutes to spare.

One of the national radio stations did not have any deejays manning in the afternoon and the same songs were repeated every fifteen minutes. (And even when there is deejay manning, the same songs can be repeated every hour and that is why I am still puzzled up to today why one of colleagues like to listen to that particular channel so much). I have to change it to another channel before I fall asleep.

Dinner at Home

Pork Spare Ribs with Cabbage and Tomato

Stir Fried Scallops with Ginger and Shallots

Dinner at Umai Fine Japanese Cuisine

This year Jeff and I decided not to go our cousin's open house for dinner.

Instead we went to Umai Fine Japanese Cuisine located at 1st Floor of D'Junction building. I had wanted to eat in this restaurant since exactly one year ago and tonight I finally got the chance to do so.

Exterior of Restaurant

Interior of Restaurant

Interior of Restaurant

We were the first customers for the night and after being there for a while, a couple turned up. As we were about to leave, a family of three people arrived. While the restaurant has quite a number of workers working, most of them can only speak Malay.

Hot Ocha

5 Types of Sashimi

Jeff and I love to eat sashimi while the rest of the family do not take this stuff. He ordered the 7 type of sashimi to share between us but only the 5 type of sashimi was available.

For those who do not really like sashimi, I suggest you order something else and not this dish because the fishes can be really fishy esp. the one with the skin still intact. Only with the help of a big chunk of wasabi the fishy smell disappeared and we could swallow. I have not had so many varieties of sashimi in one sitting and therefore I enjoyed this dish a lot esp. the salmon.

Chimi Moriawase

Chimi Moriawase

Chimi Moriawase is an assortment of baby octopus, seaweed, shellfish and fake sharkfin. It is quite enjoyable to nimble bit by bit when time is on our hand.

Empty 5 Type Sashimi Plate

Empty Chimi Moriawase Plate

We took half an hour to finish the two plates. We rested for ten minutes and then ordered noodles with tempura.

Soba with ...

Tempura

Udon with ...

Tempura

The soup for the noodles was too salty and therefore we did not drink any of the soup. The price of salt must have come down. This is also the first time I have tasted prawns inside a bowl of udon.

Overall I enjoyed myself and were satisfied with the meal except for the soup in the udon.

When it was time to pay the bill, there was a 20% discount during CNY and no 5% Government Service Tax was charged.

I will definitely go back to this restaurant.

Family CNY Reunion Dinner at Masakan Sedap

Soup

Steamed Garoupa

'Kangkung' with 'Belacan'

Aubergine

Wet Butter Prawns

Oyster Omelette

Deer Meat with Ginger and Shallots

Last night's we had dinner at home.

Tonight we went out for dinner. The angpow from Contractor Wong CZ was more than enough to cover for tonight's family reunion dinner. Hehe

Wishing all of you Happy Chinese/Lunar 'Niu' Year.

Dinner at Home

Jeff arrived back right on time for dinner. Actually his flight was delayed. Otherwise he would have reached home earlier.

Aunty Shirley (mum's eldest sister) and Chloe's dad joined us for dinner.

Pure Bliss

Today there were only one colleague and I working. There was not a single phone call, no noise and no distraction. I did not switch on the radio. I treasure these kind of moments.

Hopefully the same scenario would be repeated next week as many companies would be having the whole week off.

At 1p.m. the colleague left and I ordered lunch from the nearby coffee shop. When one of the staff delivered the food to me and saw that I was alone, she asked whether I was scared. I told her I was not scared and there was nothing to be scared of.

Salary or Bonus?

Today I managed to finish preparing the salary for January 2009.

Included in the salary was an extra amount of RM500 for those who did not take sick/medical leave at all in 2008.

Bonus would only be given out by end of this month. Some people were not happy because there was no bonus. And this people are not the same race as me.

CNY Leave

Our company printer called me today and in the course of our conversation asked me how long I would be off for CNY. I told him I would be following the gazetted public holidays. He was so surprised and uttered out, ‘So, you are not Chinese?’ So I told him I am not a pure Chinese.

I do not like to take leave and stay home to do nothing. I rather be at work. Moreover I have a lot of backlogs to catch up on next week while most of the other companies are on leave the whole week.

Does not taking leave during CNY make me not a Chinese?

Red Packets Time

CNY 2009 will be in five days’ time.

Two days ago I received my first two red packets. One was given by my paternal step-grandmother (my late paternal grandfather’s second wife) and another one given by her daughter-in-law. They passed the red packets via my brother who was in Sandakan recently.

Today I received the third red packet. Contractor Wong CZ has been giving me for the past years. I thought with the economic downturn, the amount given would be less but I was in for a surprise.

Hopefully the grand total of these three red packets would be enough to cover our family reunion dinner this Sunday night and I do not need to fork out extra money from my own pocket. This year is my turn to treat the whole family.

Contradictions

Recently I posted about all employees who are contributing to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have the liberty to choose to contribute either 8% or 11% of the monthly salary from end of this month onwards for two years. The Government thinks that by putting more money in the people’s pocket, they would spend the money and boost the economy.

But from end of this month onwards as well, all employees are paying more monthly income tax as compared to last year.

So on one hand the Government wants the people to have more money to spend but on the other hand the Government wants people to pay higher tax.

Does it make sense or not?

Does the Government know what they are doing?

The mind boggles …

Coughing

I have been coughing since last week.

The coughing started when the boss used an extremely strong scent in his room.

Previously when he had done the same thing last year, I had already told the lady boss to tell him I cannot stand the smell due to my asthma background. I would keep on coughing non-stop. I think he must have forgotten.

When it happened again last Thursday, I started coughing non-stop until now. I have been taking cough mixture and lozenges but yet the cough is still lingering on.

Worst still is that the virus has spread to some colleagues and today so many of them are coughing as well.

Sigh …

Dinner at Home

Braised Pork

Cabbage with Beef and Tomatoes

'Hai Nan' Chicken

Veges

Honesty

Today I received a phone call from Pizza Hut re. the cash payment I made two days ago for the pizzas the boss ordered online. Payment was made using credit card and I was not being informed by the lady boss. The staff from Pizza Hut said she will ask the same delivery boy to give me back the money once he clocked in at work at 5p.m.

Talking about honesty, I can still remember two incidents in my life, among others, how people had been honest to me.

1. During my first year of high school in Sydney, I dropped my wallet on the train on the way home from school. Besides having cash in the wallet, there were things like travel pass (with the pass all students were allowed to travel on trains and school buses for free when wearing uniform and half price when not wearing one), school pass, etc.

I thought that would be the end of my wallet but a few days after that, a good Samaritan who had found my wallet on the train posted back using his/her own money the wallet to my house address. There was not a single thing missing from my wallet. I could not thank the good Samaritan because he/she did not write his/her address on the envelope.

2. A few years back I received a phone call from an officer working in Standard Chartered Bank. I had banked in more money for my credit card payment than I had written on the bank-in envelope. The officer could have just pocketed the money and no one would have known. Instead he told me he would write the correct amount on the envelope for me.

At least there are still honest people around eventhough they are getting rarer and rarer.

Pies and Sushis

These are the two pies the lady boss gave me on Friday but I did not eat them until Sunday.

I had the chicken and mushroom pie for breakfast.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Part of Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Generally the chicken and mushroom pie tasted ok except too salty.

I had the chicken and veges pie for lunch.

Chicken and Veges Pie

Part of Chicken and Veges Pie

Generally the chicken and veges pie tasted ok, not too salty.

I made these at night.